The United States is in the war. It is our war. We must know all that can be known. We must do all that can be done. We have entered the war on a high and noble plane, and we must know what are the fundamental principles at stake. War is neither a gathering of heroes nor a shambles. It is holy and it is dreadful. It is sublime and it is sordid. It is so terrible a thing that it can only be pardoned when its causes are just, even as they are just, noble, and sublime in this war. To give the boys of the United States a fair viewpoint on this war, to reveal the great issues involved, to build up a swift-blooded admiration for the men who have taken their lives in their hands to defend these great ideals and to prepare our lads for a manhood in which they shall be worthy of their fathers and of their elder brothers, to give a deeper pulse to the pride of being an American, is the aim and purpose of THE AUTHOR. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE WHERE THE SHELL STRUCK 1 CHAPTER II THE HEROES OF THE FORTS 44 CHAPTER III THE CAPTIVE KAISER 86 CHAPTER IV THE PERILS OF ESCAPE 135 CHAPTER V THE DISPATCH-RIDER 190 CHAPTER VI RETREAT! RETREAT! 220 CHAPTER VII WHERE DESTINY SAID "HALT!" 253 CHAPTER VIII DIGGING IN 302 CHAPTER IX THE DEMON FACES 334 ILLUSTRATIONS Where Boyhood Guards France _Frontispiece_ FACING PAGE "Please, Colonel, Can't I Join?" 12 A Belgian Boy Hero 26 Smoke, the Herald of Death 38 Armored Train Defending Antwerp 50 Armored Car Harassing Invaders 50 The First Clash 64 Taking Soup to the Firing-Line 76 The Modern Ogre of the Forest 88 The Charge Irresistible 100 A Mammoth German War Car 118 French Cavalry on Patrol 136 Royal Boy Warriors 146 Liquid Fire Projected from the German Trenches 156 Liquid Fire Projected from Portable Reservoirs 156 Boy Heroes of the Front 168 "Our Enemies Showed Great Gallantry" 180 French Infantry Advancing 200 German Infantry Advancing 200 "They Do Not Pass!" 210 "The Veteran's Advice" 210